Cable shoes are understood as contact elements which are provided with a connecting portion, defined by a hollow cylinder, and a contact portion, which consists, the same as the connecting portion, of metal, and which may have many different shapes. A stripped end of a conductor is introduced into the connecting portion, but not into the contact portion, and the connecting portion, which possibly may be provided with an insulating sleeve, is crimped onto said end.
End-sleeves are understood as contact elements in which the stripped end of an electrical conductor is inserted immediately into the contact portion (sleeve portion) and is crimped therein. A connection portion, consisting, in the same way as the contact portion, of uninsulated metal, may be provided for seizing the insulated end part of the conductor by being crimped thereon.
"Aderend-type end-sleeves with a plastic collar" are well known types of end-sleeves where all-metallic contact or sleeve portions have an all-plastic extruded collar portion (e.g. of polypropylen), also called "insertion funnel", attached thereto. When mounting such an end-sleeve on the stripped end of a conductor (generally a multi wire conductor), the conductor is stripped along a length corresponding to the contact portion and through the insertion funnel is introduced into the contact portion. The metallic sleeve portion is then crimped in a crimping device and may receive a desired non-circular cross-sectional profile, such as a trapezoidal one.
The plastic collar loosely surrounds the insulated end part of conductor, but does not firmly seize it because, not being made of metal, it cannot be crimped. For the same reason, the plastic insertion collar occupies more space, so that conductors provided with such end-sleeves cannot be tightly crammed together, as some connector means, in which the end-sleeves shall be stuck, would demand.
Cable shoes and end-sleeves, besides being produced individually, are also produced in bands and removed from the band ("band material") first when (by roll crimping) being crimped onto the conductor. Contact elements in bands are, in respect to production as well as application, generally more advantageous than individually produced contact means, because, among other things, the conductor does not need to be inserted into them only in axial direction, but can be put into their crimp claws--which define the connecting portion in uncrimped condition--also at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the conductor.
Slipping on an insulating sleeve on individually produced cable shoes, as well as mounting the extruded plastic collar on individually produced end-sleeves, demands a separate working operation, as a result, it is therefore rather slow and expensive.
Contact elements in bands have up to now not been available at all with an insulated connection portion. This is more deplorable as the insulation has in individually produced contact elements besides of its primary function, also the important function of being a color code (e.g. red, yellow, green) for indicating the recommended range of application (in terms of conductor cross-section ranges) of the respective contact element.